Abstract
Application of ZnO in the field of photoelectrochemical water splitting is limited because of its wide-band-gap and high recombination rate. Herein is reported the design of an efficient ZnO photoanode deposited with CoOx nanoparticles to achieve a heterojunction and oxygen vacancies. The CoOx nanoparticles with abundant oxygen vacancies were anchored onto the nanorod arrays by spin coating and calcination followed by a solvothermal treatment. CoOx nanoparticles serve the dual function of forming a p-n heterojunction to facilitate the separation of photogenerated carriers, and act as a cocatalyst to decrease water oxidation barrier. Finally, oxygen vacancies increase the number of active redox sites and act as hole traps, enabling their migration to the electrode/electrolyte interface. The composite photoanode exhibits a high incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (76.7 % at 350 nm), which is twice that of pristine ZnO, and a photoconversion efficiency of 0.68 % (0.73 V versus RHE). The current approach can be expanded to fabricate other efficient photocatalysts.
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